1970
Fifth Business
Robertson Davies · 1913–1995 · Canada
Why it matters
One snowball thrown in a small Ontario town in 1908 sets off a lifetime of guilt, saints, and magic tricks. The opening novel of Davies's beloved Deptford Trilogy, steeped in Jungian myth.
At a glance
philosophical novelbildungsroman
Difficulty 6/10medium pace266 pagesA single long confessional letter dense with myth and moral inquiry.
Deep dive
Why Dunstan Ramsay insists on narrating his entire life as the fallout from one snowball nobody else remembers, and what that says about which characters get to be the hero of their own story.
